Courtesy of Hagen QuartetThe Hagen Quartet performed Tuesday for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society

Beethoven's string quartets are pinnacles of expressive eloquence and formal innovation. It's no wonder ensembles return to them often to explore what can never be fully absorbed.

The esteemed Hagen Quartet has probed these works throughout its 30-year history. For their concert Tuesday at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, the musicians from Salzburg, Austria, devoted the entire program to early and middle Beethoven quartets.

It was a marvelous evening of music-making marked by scrupulous attention to phrasing, texture and balance. And something else kept ears wide open: the performances surprised through the players' elastic sense of line and fierce intensity.

The ensemble's cohesion is partly a byproduct of heritage. Three of the musicians – first violinist Lukas Hagen, violist Veronika Hagen and cellist Clemens Hagen – are siblings. Second violinist Rainer Schmidt has been a member long enough to fit seamlessly into the family framework. But only that elusive thing called inspiration – allied to hard work, no doubt – can explain the urgent command the Hagen applies to Beethoven.

REVIEW

Hagen Quartet

The players introduced their laser-beam approach in the first movement of the Quartet in F major, Op. 18, No. 1, shaping the opening theme with teasing vitality. What followed was an account abounding in subtle and vibrant interaction. Lukas Hagen brought elegant panache to his prominent role.

The Hagen moved to middle Beethoven for the Quartet in F minor, Op. 95, subtitled the "Serioso" for its moments of dark eloquence. The performance began in unison fury, its short notes sprung and pointed.

But the players also provided ample breathing space and contrasts for the music to weave its dramatic spell. By the time the Hagen arrived at the work's finale, any restraint Beethoven suggests gave way to cascades of scale-wise virtuosity.

Poise and explosive energy were in equal supply in the Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 74, whose pizzicato passages in the opening movement give the piece its subtitle, "Harp." The Hagen employed a sophisticated system of extreme dynamics and nuances to propel the narratives.

In these musicians' hands, the slow movement had utmost warmth and the scherzo was alternately wild and nimble. The "Harp" ends with a coda that races before uttering a whispered farewell, which the Hagen captured to graceful perfection.

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